NFC West Pre-Season Betting Recap

The obvious favorites coming into this season are the Rams so there is not much value betting them to win the NFC West or on their win total. They brought in great talent on both sides of the ball with WR Brandin Cooks and CBs Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters.

With the public having their focus on the Rams, I am looking at another great team on paper in the Arizona Cardinals.

After a mediocre season a year ago they are coming into the year with low expectations.

Last year the Cardinals offense was set back by an injury to David Johnson in week 1 that kept him out for the season. They also suffered from inconsistent QB play that held the team back.

They had a defense that performed well especially at home and the defense returns this year led by Patrick Peterson and Chandler Jones.

They made one of the most underrated signings of the offseason by picking up veteran QB Sam Bradford. Last year Bradford was hurt in week 1 and when he was healthy enough to play the situation never arose for Bradford to take over for Case Keenum. He is essentially coming into this year after resting for almost a full season. In the year before Bradford played in front of a terrible offensive line, but still ended up breaking the record for completion percentage. He comes into an offense stacked with weapons in David Johnson, veteran WR Larry Firtzgerald, and athletic TE Ricky Seals-Jones.

Arizona did very well last year at home which makes 5.5 way too low of a number for wins.

Next I want to talk about the Seahawks who no longer have their Super Bowl level talent and look to be headed to the bottom of the NFC West.

They did not end last year well, and ended up losing former All-Pros Richard Sherman, Cam Chancellor and Michael Bennett amongst other players.

Their offense had trouble moving the ball and I see that continuing for them.

This team lacks talent other than Russell Wilson and Earl Thomas, who is currently holding out of training camp.

This year will be another down year as the Seahawks will try to start rebuilding.

To recap I am taking the Cardinals over 5.5 wins, and I’ll put a little bit on them making the playoffs and winning the NFC West too. I think they will be the main competition to the Rams and are staying under the radar in a small market. There is also high expectations for the 49ers coming into the season with Jimmy Garoppolo starting at QB that are creating more headlines so the Cardinals are pretty much just completely out of the public’s eye. I also like the Seahawks under 8 wins, and the price I got is reflected to when I first bet it detailed on my blog on 8/4. The price is much higher now.